I was wondering if anyone has worked out a diet which allows slow weight loss but is high in potassium and magnesium and low in sodium- I'd be grateful for any suggestions.
My potassium has been below range each time I have been unwell enough to go to A and E when in AF- since eating potassium rich food and having nuts etc for magnesium, I haven't had any AF ( April onwards) and prior to that occurrences varied from weekly to, longest two monthly,
This may be co-incidence of course but i think worth doing- problem is bananas and nuts and jacket potato have lead to small extra weight gain and that's difficult for my knees!!
Any ideas are welcome- my cardiologist said NO SUPPLEMENTS as they can cause arrhythmias so can only do it through food!!
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rosyG
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Hi Rosemary, I'm not sure if this will help you lose weight, but this evening my wife produced two flat mushrooms, layered with lean ham, goats cheese and sliced tomato sprinkled with thyme then baked in the pre-heated oven for around 25 mins, served with warfin friendly bubble 'n squeak........SCRUMMY.
Interesting that your EP says no supplements as I checked with mine who was In favour? I take magnesium sulphate as a supplement and a general mineral salt which includes sodium. I was advised by a nurse however never to take potassium as a supplement as it would be too easy to overdose as it is not cleared from your system as is magnesium, if your body doesn't require it. The worst that happens is that you have the squits if you have too much
Jason Vales book on juicing has a chapter on the mineral content of most foods so I go by that. I have also found that apples and fresh apple juice is an excellent cleanser and I make a juice of raw beet root, apple, lemon and ginger which is high in mineral content and we call it Bulls Blood because it certainly gives an energy kick and I have found it to be an appetite suppressor so we just eat much less. I restrict us to half a small to medium banana per day and a small handful of nuts and that seems to work. I have now lost 10 lbs since New Year. That is cutting out most carbs, all sugar, most dairy and reducing anything with wheat in, especially bread. We both feel better for it.
I think he was against a potassium supplement in articular- thanks for all the useful information CDreamer- I will try these suggestions
Cardiologists rarely believe in vitamins & minerals which is odd because in the ER magnesium is what is given to reset the rhythm . How can doctors forget the very things they studied in school?? Potassium (K) is absolutely essential as is magnesium for a healthy heart beat as well as the rest of the muscles in our body. The medical parameters are way too low for the most part. Potassium needs to be around 4.5. Personally, my K needs to be about 4.9 for my heart beat to normalize. Maybe i need digestive enzymes to better utilize the vitamins / minerals from the food, but i don't get it from the food, even though i eat a very healthy diet. A prescription potassium is better than over the counter as OTC is not uniform. Not true of other good quality supplements. My own regimen includes Slow K, magnesium, L-Taurine, Hawthorne, and other heart stabilizing vit/min. Perhaps you need to find a cardiologist who is AT LEAST remembers the basics of our anatomy and it's requirements.
Hi Loo try the Bulls Blood, wow that gives a kick! There is a recipe in his book but don't think he calls it that!
I also very recently bought that American very powerful blender you see in all of the chef's kitchens and love it! Expensive but for a lot of our smoothies, soups, sauces great and it makes ice cream in about 45 seconds. I just pile in all of the fruit & veg because that way you get the roughage as well AND it is so much easier to clean as the thing that puts me off juicing is taking the juicer apart to clean out all the fibre and the having to add physlium husks to replace the fibre! The other advantage is that you don't use nearly as much, whereas I used to use about 4 apples in a mix, I now only use 1 but I do use a very good bought PRESSEd apple juice to make up the
Liquid, it's been available in supermarkets on offer recently. This year I hope to press our own apples and store the juice in our freezer but that will only last us a month or so unfortunately.
Now I only juice very hard root veg such as beets but everything else, including carrots and parsnips etc are completely liquidised.
I always fell better on a smoothie day, even though I love my food. I note that the big supermarkets are now selling frozen smoothie mixes which I find also useful when I am having a down day as it means I stay on track - handful of the mix, a carrot, a bunch of curly kale and apple juice + spoon of honey yogurt, yum!
Hi CDreamer - what is the name of your juicer? I have been thinking of getting one and a recommendation is always good. I'll be having a look at Jason Vales book too.
Sorry for not replying sooner, it is the one JV recommended which is a Phillips. We have had it for about 4 years and has been very reliable and seems good but you do get left with a lot of fibre which is waste product, whereas the blender uses everything.
The blender is a Vitamix which I bought on offer a few months ago on the recommendation of granddaughter. Cost a fortune but I can see it lasting a lifetime (not mine, hers and her grandchildren) as it will blend anything and everything and has a motor measured in horse-power. I love it because to wash I just rinse, put a little wash up liquid in it and put it back on the motor for quick whizz and rinse, done. My very ancient Sunbeam blender (bought in 1973) recently gave up the ghost, fair play to it, lasted well, but taking it apart to clean was a pain.
Life choices I tend to agree with you AND an excess of potassium can be very dangerous so great care needs to be taken.
My EP was very pro supplements, although he didn't know much about it he admitted that the profession needed to take them much more seriously, and he said that interestingly the aenthetists are very pro magnesium supplements. There is a big myth within cardiology that the body cannot absorb oral magnesium and that as it is only quick acting, when they give infusion of magnesium in an emergency it only lasts about 20 mins, therefor it is a waste of money to take supplements as most get flushed out of your body.
If you study the actual chemical process within the body you understand their reasoning however, they normally go by blood levels in which the level hardly ever changes so is a useless measure. It is the level within the cell that is important, especially in the heart. Soaking in a bath of Epsom salts once a week is a good way of absorbing magnesium to a cellular level, according to the Dr Myhill who believes that we can never get the mineral levels that we need from our food as intensive farming has depleted the levels in the soil that are accessible to us through our food.
I so wish the mainstream medical profession would integrate nutrition and that we had access to knowledgeable nutritional advice as part of the care package, and not just a fat nurse telling me to 'eat well' and not to eat eat sausages too often! It was laughable.
I would also appreciate AFA patients day discussion/presentation on the subject. I did suggest it last year.
I am reading all of this with much interest as I've been wondering the same thing, I had better bookmark this page and make notes! It's one of the big challenges, dieting and managing to keep all the important criteria within good limits for the sake of AF and INR. Complicated old thing, life, sometimes! But thank you everyone, I'm shamelessly pinching your ideas...
Would recommend the Fast Metabolism Diet by Haylie Pomfrey. I had an ablation last year but still get ectopics from time to time which I chased away with potassium glycinate powder about once or twice a week. Having been on this diet for 4 weeks I've only dosed once on the potassium. I have so much more energy, skin looks great, and have lost some inches and 10lbs ! I do think the varied foods are giving me the minerals I need now and the 2ltrs of water per day washing out the toxins. Worth a look ?
I have tried Halibut today as it's got high potassium and magnesium and am switching from bananas to more tomatoes- any other food suggestions to replace high calories nuts etc welcome!!
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